Introduction: Making Armour Out of Cardboard

Things that you will need are:

- an old glove (preferably black, grey, or white)

- 1 piece of thin cardboard

- 2 pieces of thick cardboard

- rustoleum silver metallic spray paint

- black and brown acrylic paint

- paint brush

- mod podge primer

- hot glue gun

- thick pen

- glue sticks for the glue gun

- marker

- scissors

- an elastic (rubber band, broken headband or hair tie, etc.)

- normal printing paper

Step 1: Hand Pieces

Trace the segments of your fingers onto a thin piece cardboard. You want your finger pieces to be a little longer so that they overlap each other. Make sure that your pieces aren't too thin for your fingers. For the hand pieces, trace under your knuckles and above your wrist. Cut all your pieces out after tracing them. Repeat for the other side.

Step 2: Gauntlets

Measure your arm's width about halfway, then measure your arm's length to your wrist. Transfer your measurements on paper. Make the bottom (the part closest to your elbow) of your template wider than the top. Make the top (the part closest to your wrist) of your template pointed. Trace the template on a thicker piece of cardboard than the hand pieces. After that, cut them out, then repeat for the other side.

Step 3: Shoulder Pieces

Make templates shaped like the outline in the picture. The top of the piece should be 1 1/2 inches above your shoulder. Trace it on thick cardboard and cut it out.

Step 4: Elbows

Make 2 thin lemon shapes that extend to the middle of your elbow and your elbow crease (the second picture). Take a piece of printing paper and make two straight lines that are about 2 1/2 to 3 inches apart. Leave 1 inch in the middle at the ends and curve the outsides (picture 1). Trace then on thick cardboard and cut it out.

Step 5: Breastplate - Female

Measure the perimeter of half of the bottom of your chest and transfer it onto a thick piece of cardboard. Measure the perimeter of half of your bust and transfer it onto the same piece of cardboard. Connect the 2 lines with a curved line on each side. Start with the line you just drew and start curving inwards, then curve outwards with a curved line that becomes a straight line. Draw 1 inch for part of the strap then go down about 4 inches. Curve outwards until you get to the middle. Repeat on the other side. Draw slim triangles on the outside pointing inwards. The points should not end far in the middle. Cut out the breastplate and triangles. Glue all parts that are cut out (on the breastplate).

Step 6: Painting

Set down a piece of cardboard, papers, just something to protect the floor from the paint, and place your pieces on there. Prime the pieces at least 3 times to make it smooth. For each layer, let it dry for at least 25-35 minutes. Shake the spray paint for about 2 minutes then spray all of your pieces. Spray a second coat on after 45-60 minutes. Let your pieces dry for 2 hours.

Step 7: Weathering

Take out the bottles of black and brown acrylic paints and squeeze them into a cup. Add a tablespoon and a half of black and 1/4 of a tablespoon of brown. Add 1/4 of a teaspoon of water into the cup and mix with a paintbrush. Paint the mix all over your piece. You want to weather down piece by piece so that the paint doesn't dry. Wait for one minute before taking a paper towel and smudging the paint. You want the outsides to be darker than the middle, so smudge the middle more than the outside. To get rid of streakiness, you want to dab/pat the streaks with the paper towel. Leave it to dry and repeat for the other pieces. For the hand pieces, weather down 1/4 of all of the hand pieces before doing the next 1/4.

Step 8: Hand Pieces

Heat up a glue gun and get an old glove. Get a thick pen or stick and fit it through the fingers of the gloves. Take your hand pieces and order them segment by segment. Glue them on correctly onto the glove. Make sure you don't burn yourself. Repeat on the other side.

Step 9: Armour Pieces

Take an elastic (rubber band, broken hair tie, etc.) and glue each side onto the middle section of the armour. For the breastplate, you can use a broken headband.

Step 10: Breastplate Details - Optional -

I made this breastplate before the one in this instructable and put details on it. Although it's made out of craft foam, here's what it would kind of look like with details. All you have to do is just draw a design you want on a thick piece of cardboard and cut it out, prime it, paint it, then glue it where you want it to be, then you're done. You also could make a bottom piece for the breastplate so that it's more comfortable. All you have to do is trace the bottom of the breastplate onto a piece of thick cardboard, then draw on any shape you want it to be. Cut it out, prime it, paint it, then glue it on.

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